Turn off the eLink unit. Turn off the computer. Connect a USB cable to the eLink AND computer and then power up the eLink unit. After about 10 seconds or so when the eLink has settled power on the computer. When the computer has finally settled down after loading all the background programs, files and other information you should be able to open RailMaster and have it running normally. Waiting for hard drive lights or LED’s to stop flashing during this process can be a partial waste of time as they will constantly be going whether or not you use the computer. Simply look for slower activity on the LED’s and a quieter and lower hard drive spin rate. This is simply Windows carrying out background checks on ports and indexing files etc, especially when Windows is not in use. Take a note of how the screen looks at the bottom right near the clock and how many programs etc the system is running as background services after it settles. This is a guide to what you should see each time before running RailMaster. The first part of this tip is based on what yelrow (John) mentions on the Hornby forum.

Remember to use a port with a number attached to it that is either 4 or less for RailMaster to work properly. Do NOT use any USB hubs to attach the eLink unit to the PC or laptop otherwise you will have communication errors.

Set the Baud Rate in RailMaster to 115,200 for the eLink unit and 19,200 for the Elite unit while also mirroring the respective value to the driver under Device Manager in the Control Panel.

If you have communications issues with RailMaster and Windows (AND ONLY IF) then you should check the RailMaster.ini file and add the following lines if they are not already included... to edit the file from within RailMaster (best way to do it): click the question mark and then the small cog in the newly opened dialogue window. Make the changes listed below ONLY for your own controller, if necessary, and click the tick to save and close. Close also the information window.

For the eLink unit only.Alternative comms=1 and Check controller=1. These two lines may, or may not, already be included within this file. If so simply close.

For the Elite unit and Windows versions up to Windows 7 only. Alternative comms=0 and Check controller=0.

For the Elite unit and Windows versions Windows 8 and above only. Alternative comms=1 and Check controller=0.

This section is based upon HRMS (Hornby RailMaster Support) own findings since selected members of the forum have had particular issues with the Microsoft driver for RailMaster.

With Windows XP and Vista the driver for RailMaster would be selected by you to install from the supplied installation disk. With Windows 7, 8, 8.1, 10 and 11 the driver is automatically downloaded via the Microsoft site and generally works well. However, for some it does not and this may be due to some motherboard and USB architectures being somewhat unfamiliar to standard motherboard and USB builds. In this case you should use the driver supplied by Hornby which can be found by browsing to the RailMaster folder on your system. So just uninstall the current non-working driver, power down the eLink unit and after a few seconds (to allow caching and electricity residue to clear within the chips) power on the unit and Windows should see the Elite and attempt to download the Windows driver or ask you to select a driver to install from elsewhere. Choose the latter and install from within the RailMaster folder Hornby’s own driver.

*** There is a possibility that when the full install is complete you may be left with a situation where in Device Manager you have under ’Other Devices’ an item listed as ’CDC RS-232 Emulation Demo’. This happens when Windows recognises there is hardware there but cannot understand where it is supposed to be listed as the driver is not correctly installed. The link to the guide below will solve this issue for you. If not you need to contact RailMaster Support through the RailMaster interface.

For Win XP see page 7, Vista see page 11, Win 7 see page 17 and Win 8/8.1 see page 25. Also refer to the Troubleshooting page 33.***

While all USB sockets are generally backward compatible, meaning an older piece of hardware using USB v1.0 for example can be used on USB v2 sockets it cannot be said that the same is true for the new USB v3.0 standard.

The socket will allow most USB v2.0 hardware to work but some motherboards have been made to include USB v3.0 sockets that will ONLY allow USB 3 standards equipment to work with them. This may seem odd but while the same motherboards contain USB v2.0 standard sockets it was construed that you would fit the correct hardware into the correct socket!

Please keep this in mind if you do have a newer PC or laptop that has USB v3.0 sockets fitted. They are generally coloured blue on your hardware.